BEITSTED — O'S THE GEOLOGY OE MAIDSTONE. 



Tlie chalk hills are covered, at various places, 

 with a red, tenacious (Post-Tertiary or Diluvial) 

 clay, in which great quantities of flint nodules are 

 buried. 



At the " Upper Bell," on the Rochester road, the 

 chalk hill is G20 feet al3ove sea-level, and from this 

 altitude the spectator's view ranges over a great ex- 

 tent of beautiful coautry. In the left bank, a large 

 tabular bed of flint, about two inches thick, crops 

 out. Layers of hard chalk also occur here, con- 

 taining numerous sharp casts of fossils — Trochi, 

 Dentalia, Hamites, Scaphites, small Ammonites, 

 etc. This bed is also met with at Boxley and Dept- 

 ford. It is known to but few collectors, and some 

 perseverance in breaking up pieces of this hard 

 chalk is necessary to obtain specimens of its fossils.* 



In a field at Boxley Hill, I found an Echinus 

 in a lump of the chalk which had been strewed 

 over the land, in tlie interior of which were minute 

 shells, apparently of a species of Ai^ca (?), that 

 had probably gained access to the empty dead 

 shell, as the Echinidse do not swallow entire shells, 

 but gnaw dead fishes and such-like objects with 

 their teeth. The Spatangidse live by swallowing 

 sand and mud, deriving their nutriment from the 

 organic particles they contain. Near here the 

 Lower Chalk makes its appearance, and the great 

 Burham pits, from which Mr. Toulmin Smith ob- 

 tained many of his beautiful specimens of Ventri- 

 culites, are about a mile off", in a westerly direction. 

 These pits are famous for the very numerous fos- 

 sils of high interest which they have produced. At 

 Hailing, too, on the opposite side of the Medway, 

 considerable quantities of chalk are dug for burn- 

 ing ; the lime made from the chalk of these places 

 being considered of very superior quality. It is 

 known commercial lyas " greystone lime." 



In 1839 I discovered the femur of a turtle in a 

 pit at Hailing, and also an abdominal plate at Bur- 

 ham. These were the first remains of turtles dis- 

 covered in the Kentish chalk. But a few years 

 later I had the good fortune to find a most perfect 

 specimen. This unique fossil I presented to Dr. 

 Mantell, and it is now in the British Museum. 



It was figured and described by him in the ' Phi- 

 losophical Transactions,' pi. 2, for 1841, and sub- 



* This seems to be the bed of " chalk-rock " referred to by- 

 Mr. Whitaker in the Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xvii. p. 170. 

 — Ed. Geol. 



